Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Tomorrow is the first day of
2014.And you know what that means?It means that Rudolph, Holly, Eve and I have
successfully completed the challenge we set for ourselves – to post entries to
our blog each and every day of December without missing a beat.Not a single one!We may have had to switch days with another
family member when life made it complicated to post on our assigned day – but regardless
of how we got here, we did.And we each
contributed a fourth of the blog entries.I am SO very proud of our family for having accomplished this!

2013 was an exceptional year.While it certainly wasn’t perfect, I loved
it.Possibly my favorite year of all
time thus far.Eve, Rudolph and Holly
are an amazing family and I’m truly blessed to have been able to share so many
wonderful things with them this year.

So, for my last entry of 2013, I want
to highlight some of my personal favorites of the year:

Monday, December 30, 2013

So the apocalypse has come and my entire school
has suddenly dropped dead and then stood back up again--because that’s what
zombies do.My high school has
multiple buildings which means us kids have to actually walk across the campus
to go to our different classes. I know, it’s crazy to make students walk but
what are you gonna do?

If all the students and teachers “turned” between
classes, the zombies would be shuffling about the campus. Lucky for me (and no
one else because they’re dead), my school has breezeways that lead from building
to building. From the tops of these bad boys, I would have full access to the
entire school and could hide from the decaying remains of the people who made
me fill out endless scantron sheets.

Usually I get depressed at the thought of
school work, but hands with missing or rotting fingers aren’t capable of
handing out homework, are they? The challenge, naturally, would be to get on
top of said breezeway. If I could summon my upper-body strength that I don’t
have, I could pull myself up to safety.

As for items I would take with me, I
would take a needlessly massive textbook for a weapon, a sweatshirt to cover
myself to prevent bites, my phone to seek help but mostly to play games
(obviously), hand sanitizer, and maybe I’d find a cafeteria knife if I felt
like getting down and dirty. Collectively, I could use these things to survive.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

It's 8:30am on a cloudy Sunday morning smack in the middle of vacation. I
barge into the room where my children are sleeping and briskly wake them
up. "Time to go for a walk!" I insist. After
several additional rounds of this, they do, in fact, yield to my demand.
Quick to shower, up and out - mainly to beat the impending rain.

The OCA Trail is a walking/biking trail that follows the Old Croton Aqueduct.
The Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for
New York City between 1837 and 1842. It brought water, by the force of gravity
alone, 41 miles from the Croton River in northern Westchester County into
reservoirs in Manhattan, where local water resources had become polluted and
inadequate for the growing population of the city. While the
Aqueduct is no longer used to transport water, the trail alongside it is still
very much in use by anybody who wants to get a little exercise in the great outdoors.

So why do I make my kids walk the OCA, are you still wondering? There are
many reasons:
Because exercising as a family is as important as doing anything else as a
family.Our little family of four goes to all kinds of
restaurants, hits the movies, travels abroad, sees Broadway shows, plays board
games, or simply hangs out at home together. All good things - but
missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: getting out and moving! For
children, it's important to teach them to weave exercise into the fabric of
their daily life. For parents, it is important to remind us to take the
time to do what we should - get our blood pumping!

Because in order to respect nature, one needs to commune with it.
When you think about it, one actually needs to be aware something is there in
order to care about it. As we trod along this wooded path, we've come
across flowers, deer, snakes, squirrels, and birds. We've witnessed a
beautiful view of the Hudson River and the Palisades across the way.
We've walked the OCA on sunny hot days, very humid days, windy days, and cloudy
cold damp days. All the while, we make little discoveries of cool
microcosms co-existing amongst us. Hiking the trail is a good reminder
that we are only a small part contributing to the big picture.

Because when you walk, you talk. It is on one of these many walks, my
son convinced me to watch one of his favorite TV shows because he thought I
would like it - and he was right. It is on one of these many walks my
daughter shared with us all of her favorite trips that we have taken as a
family. And it is on one of these may walks my husband played Christmas
music on his phone thereby reigniting the discussion as to whether or not
"Favorite Things" is actually a Christmas song. Quality time
doesn't happen on demand folks, but an environment can be created that is prone
to such good stuff!

Well, that about sums up my little explanation to the method of my
madness. Hopefully, we will see some of you (locals) out there joining
us! Happy trails!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The concept of Food Artistry conjures different things for different
people.

To some, this brings to mind one of the many contests on
Food Network, typically themed around a holiday like Halloween or Christmas,
where chefs design and build elaborate edible displays.“Edible art,” if you will.While the displays are often actually made of
fondant or spun sugar, nobody really ever intends to eat those displays.

To others, the notion of Food Artistry brings to mind dishes
they’ve been served in restaurants where the plating of the food is statuesque.Elements of the dish piled high or wide, the
plate painted with a balsamic reduction or similar such material.Tasty dishes all dolled up for their coming
out party.

Tonight, our family experienced the ultimate in Food
Artistry at a restaurant called Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills,
NY.Now, we’ve been to this restaurant
before.But it never fails to surprise
and impress us.

Over the course of four hours (yes, really – 4 hours), we
were served thirty-five (yes, really – 35) different plates or courses of
food.Each was different from what came
before it.Each was a small bite of a
distinctive taste.And aside from being
delicious and distinctive in its own right, every single course was presented
distinctively – from marinated vegetables on short metal spikes, on miniature
gold trees, plated on a piece of slate, served on the bark of an oak tree,
resting on a plate of sesame seeds, on a lazy Susan of assorted condiments and fixings,
and in hexagonal stacked dishes that were unstacked by our waiter to form a
honeycomb pattern of 12 dishes on the table at the same time.

The quality and attention to detail were exquisite; the
presentations were creative and inventive, and yet they were all completely in
keeping with the farm atmosphere of the restaurant (which is situated on an
actual farm from which many/most of the ingredients are sourced.

As each course was served, typically in unison by multiple
waiters, we were given an explanation of each dish – the ingredients, how they
were prepared and where they came from.We were fascinated to try tastes we had never experienced before – and learned
a lot about spices, roots, vegetables and other types of food in the process.

Through the entire meal, my daughter took notes about the
dishes so she’d remember the experience.Not sure we captured them all but here’s a list of what we think we ate
tonight:

Friday, December 27, 2013

Thursday, December 26, 2013

I am 15 years old and over 6 feet tall. I have
always been tall for my age, and have always grown fast. Most people view being
tall as a gift, and in some ways, it certainly is. Yet at the same time, the
gift of height can be a curse as well as a blessing. I have found in my
experience that the bonuses of being tall are the same thing as the curses.
Here are a few examples.

I think it’s safe to say that people are generally
intimidated by things that are big. If that wasn’t the case, then Godzilla
would’ve been the size of a gecko, and Jaws would have been the size of a
goldfish. Therefore, people who are bigger than others can and in some
situations do come off as intimidating. While that can be a good thing most of
the time because it simply keeps people from bullying or trying to fight you,
it can also be a curse. For example, not too long ago I went to see some young
cousins of mine that I only met once prior to this. These little girls had an
excellent time playing with my sister our whole visit, but they were afraid of
me, as I towered over them. Sometimes it isn’t fun to be scary.

The obvious one would be that tall people are higher
up in the air and can reach stuff that is on the top shelf. At school, I am
always asked by my shorter teachers to turn on the projector and save the day.
Which is good. I’m glad my height can contribute to society. But on the other
hand, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m hitting my head on everything. Do you
know what it’s like to run cheerilyand
care-freely down the stairs as a young child just to walk down those stairs as
an older child and have to duck in terror of cracking your skull open on the
ceiling? IT’S DEPRESSING.

Here’s a good one. Whenever my family goes to
massive family get-togethers, the people who haven’t seen me in while will talk
to me about how tall I am. Which is a good thing because sometimes I don’t even
recognize who I’m talking to or if I’m even related to them so I’m very
grateful to just have something to
converse about. On the other hand, the whole height-conversation thing
backfires in some situations. I have some family members that I can’t have a
conversation with that doesn’t involve my height as the main topic. Like that’s
all they’re able to talk to me about.